This invention relates to fabric illuminated with a changing design and more particularly to an article of clothing having a design formed by light emitting optical fibers which are sequentially illuminated in an animated manner.
Prior art illumination of garments is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,008 to G. E. Miller, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,293 to P. S. Wells, U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,206 to C. Deutsch, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,191 to X. Davillia. These patents describe the use of light emitting diodes which connect with a printed circuit sheet on the interior of a garment and project through the garment to the outside surface.
Another manner of garment illumination is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,549,878 to R. E. Balley, which discloses the use of bundles of fiber optics secured to selected outer portions of a garment. Individual fiber ends are turned outwardly from the bundles through the jacket surrounding them and illuminated by a light source, connected to a battery, positioned at the opposite ends of the bundles.
A light emitting fabric is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,907 to M. Daniel that describes the use of light emitting optical fibers woven into a fabric or uniform illumination and decoration. The individual fibers are gathered into a bundle at one end of the fabric and illuminated by a light source. Light traveling through the fibers is emitted in small amounts throughout the lengths of the fibers through small scratches in their outer coatings.
A moving pattern simulator is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,872 to F. C. Way. A display board is formed with perforations at selected locations to receive the ends of a plurality of light-conducting fibers. The opposite ends of the fibers are received in a support member 24 and arranged in a particular spacial relation so that when they are illuminated in sequence the desired motion of the light pattern appears at the face of the board. A light source spaced from the support member is used to illuminate the fiber conductors, and an opaque disk having a plurality of openings at strategic locations may be positioned between the light source and the ends of the fiber conductors to sequentially illuminate various ends of the conductors.
The prior art illuminated garments are bulky and stiff, the bulbs, diodes and fibers are difficult to replace, and they protrude from the fabric, generally, in an unprotected manner that make them susceptible to damage. In addition, the degree of illumination of the light emitting diodes is quite bright making them easy to see even in well-lighted environments. This makes them extremely obvious, and by their nature generally unacceptable for use in lightweight fabrics of thinner material and for which designers wish more subtle lighting effects. Optical fibers woven into a fabric and dependent upon scratches in their outer coatings for illumination are also impractical. The moving pattern simulator of U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,872 is cumbersome and totally unsuitable for incorporation in a garment.